The Raging Seas

It started peacefully with a scenic late winter snowfall. Maryland got up to 24 in., northern Virginia 22, Pennsylvania 19. But then a rare combination of three pressure areas formed a funnel down which winds spilled off the turbulent Atlantic Ocean at ever-increasing speed to strike the U.S. East Coast. Reinforcing the high tides of the new moon, 84-m.p.h. gusts generated waves 25 ft. high. For two days the water rolled over coastal barriers from Connecticut to North Carolina. When it receded, damage was estimated at $300 million.

Taken Over. On Long Island's south shore, protective sand dunes crumbled. Into the raging Atlantic waters went summer houses at Westhampton Beach, some valued at $50,000, and more modest shacks on Fire Island's dunes. Water swirled over car tops at Coney Island. Nearly one-third of the total damage occurred in New Jersey. Atlantic City's exposed Steel Pier was partially swept away, stranding the former "Miss America" ballroom. Hundreds of homes were ruined on Long Beach Island, which was sliced into five islets by the waves. At devastated Sea Isle City, a three-story convent was taken over by the ocean just after nuns abandoned it. Some 2,000 people evacuated towns between Atlantic City and Cape May. A 35-room wing of the million-dollar Atlantic Sands Motel was shattered in Rehoboth Beach, Del., just part of that resort city's $50 million damage. Helicopters laboriously carried 800 residents off Virginia's Chincoteague Island; some 2,000 others left when buses got through. The tides swamped resort facilities at Kitty Hawk, N.C., dumped sand into luxury hotels as far south as Miami Beach.

At least 38 people died. Near Delaware Bay, Mrs. John Waters pulled her husband's head above water while six of their eight children drowned in their submerged car. When a Coast Guard amphibious duck overturned at Beach Haven Inlet, N.J., its nine occupants linked arms in waist-deep water, but loft. waves broke the chain, dragged two middle-aged couples to their deaths. Mrs. Ralph Poynton, 82, refused help as water leaped at the foundation of her Rehoboth Beach home, told rescuers: "I've got plenty of food, and there's a coal fire going in the kitchen range. I'll stay." Within hours she was dead of a heart attack.

Gulped Up. At sea, waves smashed the Liberian tanker Gem into two pieces off Cape Hatteras. One officer was crushed trying to launch a lifeboat; 33 others were rescued -- including one frightened stow away. A Beach Haven resident saw the sea carry off not only his house but his life savings of $30,000 hidden in it. Tele vision's temporarily retired personality, Dave Garroway. much more fortunate, sold his Long Island house for $39,000 one day before it was gulped up by the ocean.

Luckiest of all was Harbor Pilot Harold Kaiser. Unable to get off the liner United States by small boat after clearing New York Harbor in the rough seas, he sailed off to Europe on an unexpected 13-day vacation cruise.

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